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VEN-U Sensors Q&A with John Weber and Sam Cece

Long Range Systems and Swift Sensors partnered in November 2017 for the launch of VEN-U Sensors. We interviewed John Weber, the President & CEO of LRS and Sam Cece, the Founder & CEO of Swift Sensors to learn more about what restaurants can expect from VEN-U Sensors.

Why did Long Range Systems and Swift Sensors partner?

Weber: Restaurants succeed with exceptional communication. Through this partnership we can provide restaurant managers with even more tools to enable smart, efficient operations.

Cece: Our partnership will bring IoT technology to the large base of LRS customers worldwide. Restaurants will collect more data, improve safety and ensure compliance without sacrificing product quality or service speed.

What are VEN-U Sensors?

Cece: VEN-U Sensors are wireless devices that monitor and record key environmental data around the clock. Sensors measure data such as temperature, humidity, door access, vibration, water presence and more. An alert is immediately delivered to the restaurant manager via SMS text, email and/or phone call when a desired threshold is breached. This helps businesses proactively maintain equipment and procedures, which can ultimately save significant time and costs.

How does this partnership benefit restaurant customers?

Weber: First, businesses are able to prevent large losses of goods and equipment. For example, you’ll receive an alert that a refrigerator temperature is moving higher than desired. You can troubleshoot this issue before the equipment fails and goods go to waste. More importantly, you’re ensuring that food is fresh and safe for restaurant customers.

In addition, staff no longer need to hand-enter measurements like freezer, refrigerator or other status metrics. The beauty of automated monitoring is that it eliminates time-consuming, inefficient tasks.

Lastly, VEN-U Sensors make it easy to validate that equipment and processes meet compliance standards. Users easily capture data in the cloud, compare measurements and gather insights based on individual devices, restaurant locations or accounts.

How do VEN-U Sensors work?

Weber: Matchbox-sized sensors transmit data to a Cloud-enabled Bridge. The Bridge acquires sensor data and securely transmits data to the Cloud. All Cloud data is viewable from your computer or smartphone. Cloud architecture is scalable so you can view a single device, one-site applications or multi-site enterprises with thousands of varied sensor types. Lastly, you can set multiple thresholds and alerts separately for each device to supply notifications via SMS text, email and/or phone call.

Why should restaurants have VEN-U Sensors as a part of their operations technology?

Weber: It’s very clear that this technology is a natural fit for the restaurant industry. It doesn’t matter what your service experience looks like – automated monitoring is going to provide peace-of-mind that you’re serving top-quality ingredients and equipment and processes are running as they should be. For example, an upscale bistro might say, “what do I have in common with a sandwich shop?” Whether it’s a case of deli meat or thousands of dollars worth of prime rib in the walk-in, you’re going to want to know if something is wrong with the temperature in real-time.

Is there a real-life example?

Cece: Matthew Kritzer owns five Jimmy John’s locations and uses sensors to make sure that his equipment is working correctly and his staff is operating at 100% efficiency. You can watch this video to learn more.

Where can I look at a history of the data?

The Cloud Dashboard shows the current and historical data registered in the system. Additionally, custom dashboards are easily configured to show views of the data that are most important to the staff. Export data for any time window into a spreadsheet for additional analysis and/or reporting.